Mike Gravel on Technology

Libertarian for President; Former Democratic Senator (AK)

CNN’s live war coverage is propaganda for weapons systems

[The military-industrial complex] was boosted by a new kind of war propaganda masquerading as journalism. It was called CNN. The world had never seen anything like it: a real war unfolding live and in living color in every home.

The film that was flown
in from Vietnamese jungles had shown the horrors of battle and suffering Americans. It had roused Americans. Militarists and their media allies had learned; there would be no more of that.

CNN obliged, with music & graphics to match each stage of the
conflict. The “war news” amounted to advertisements for weapons systems, especially Raytheon’s Patriot missiles.

There was no end to Patriot missile cheerleading, but long after the war the record showed the Patriots had been ineffective.
It didn’t matter. Bush visited Raytheon headquarters to address its employees in a victory speech. Can you imagine a victory speech in an armaments factory? They knew no shame. Raytheon’s stock soared. Those who knew cashed out in time.

Put entire government-citizen interface online

The Internet portends fundamental changes on the order of those resulting from the Gutenberg Press that ushered in the Ages of Discovery and Enlightenment. The Internet, in my view, will usher in the Age of Democracy, the essence of which will be
republican governance--the majoritarian expression of the popular sovereignty of people.

[Incumbents] assess what the Internet offers for the delivery of government information. Much greater benefits however lie in moving the processing of the
interface between citizens and government onto the Internet. My recent online driver’s license renewal with the Virginia DMV was unexpectedly convenient and efficient. With little attention or effort, filing of income taxes online is on the rise. Clearly
intra-governmental operations are increasingly going online. It makes sense that the entire government-citizen interface and interaction should begin to be vectored toward Internet facilitation, digital divide aside, which will shortly be marginalized.

Source: Press release, “The Internet and the Future”
Nov 18, 2000

Empower Congress to make independent scientific conclusions

Congress needs help if it is to perform its adversary function assigned by our forefathers. An Office of Scientific Assessment (OSA) should be established which would equip the Congress with an impressive array of scientists, engineers, and other
specialists with the expertise to make independent scientific and technical inquiries and to examine whether or not the advice provided to Congress by the executive departments is politically self-serving, incomplete, or otherwise biased or unscientific.

Congress has no scientists at its own command and is, therefore, at a disadvantage whenever it attempts to question the administration’s scientific advice. Congressional committees do hear testimony from so-called “scientific witnesses,” but often
these experts’ “private” scientific research is funded by government grants administered by executive agencies. Obviously, these scientists do not fail to notice which side their bread is buttered on.